I hope you will learn a lot from this interview. I am super happy to introduce Shruti Dugar, who has launched her 50+-year-old family business on Amazon which is now contributing 35-40% of their overall business revenue.

My questions are in heading form, her answers (in her own words!) are below each question.

Let us jump in.

Tell us about yourself & your business

Hi, I’m Shruti Dugar. By education, I did my graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication. I hail from a family-business background. Ours is a fifty-plus-year-old store dealing in traditional women’s apparel, specifically Bengal sarees, suits, and handmade silk scarves in Kolkata.

Why did you choose to sell online & on Amazon?

We were considering expanding to a new outlet so I thought why not give online a try? My brother bought a DSLR and I thought I’d better utilize it efficiently, so one day I took the camera to our store and started clicking pictures of the sarees.

I took the pictures and edited the white background and thought I’d upload it on either Amazon or Flipkart. I’d prepared all the essential documents and went on to update them on these portals. I chose to sell on Amazon because their rules were very liberal and clutter-free.

What is it about online selling that excites you most?

What excites me the most is, of course when I get notified of the new order and all that can happen only when I can deliver the product which is unique, different, and in demand. One thing that keeps me motivated is our products are traveling places, even to the remotest part of India.

My happiest day was when our product was shipped to Canada, our first international sale online. Comments from my customers are what excites me to upload new stocks every day!

How much money did you have to get started with?

As I said, I had stocks but no capital. So my initial investment was only the DSLR.

How many products do you have today?

We have over 1000 unique products live now.

How did you get your first order?

It took 15 days since we first went live on Amazon to get our first order. I wasn’t aware of the nitty-gritty like how the buy-box functions, how SEO works in Amazon so every day I would thoroughly go through Amazon Seller Central and read more about it and apply it to my inventories.

What percentage of your total business revenue comes from Amazon?

Now, 35-40% of our business revenue comes from Amazon.

Do you think there is any mentality difference when it comes to offline & online?

Yes, there’s a lot of difference in mentality when one shops online. Online buyers have a plethora of options to choose from but offline it is still restricted. Offline, they are focused on their needs but online is vast and sometimes the buyer gets overwhelmed with so many options and sometimes does not even purchase any item altogether!

What are the top challenges you face when selling on Amazon? Did you overcome any? How?

The most obvious challenge when dealing with apparel is obviously the return. To be honest, we can take only precautions and package the product diligently and follow up with the customer taking their feedback. Now, I package all the products personally and see if there are any discrepancies, I fix them.

How has your amazon business grown and changed over the years?

Yes, my business has grown considerably over the years. Through Amazon, we made a good customer base and now they contact us directly if they need any product in bulk or want customizable products. Many people living in Kolkata from far off places come to our store and also recommend others so that’s genuinely very good.

Do you encourage more people to sell on Amazon?

100%. If you can offer uniqueness, you are going to be a hit on Amazon.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you could give to somebody about selling on Amazon?

Don’t wait to have a perfect or life-changing product. Just grab a phone with good camera quality and click good angles of the product you’re offering.

Do your proper research obviously but just start with whatever you have right now. Your failures will teach you automatically.

It will be a rollercoaster ride with lots of returns and positive feedback and everything will be worth it!

I hope you enjoyed this conversation.

The post Interview With An Amazon – Seller How to Sell More on Amazon appeared first on Bharathidasan Moorthi.

1. You can choose any of the following options to sell online based on your expertise and resources(time, money, and manpower) Sell on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc.
2. Launch your own e-Commerce store

You can sell using either(or both) of these methods or both. Both have their own share of advantages and disadvantages. But you must use your precious resources like time & money effectively to maximize the results.

You have to make the right choice for your business and also make the most of your resources..

In this article, you will learn different factors that need to consider selling online.

• Control
• Transaction Fee
• Store Policy
• Visibility
• Customer Details – Know Your Customers Better
• Credibility, Trust, & Loyalty
• Marketing Expenses
• Infrastructure – Payment Gateway/Logistics
• Profit Margins
• Potential for more sales & Scalability
• Branding
• Speed
• Multiple marketplaces

And by the end of this blog post, you will be in a position to decide for yourself which is the best way to sell your product online.

Control

Control is the primary difference between both the selling options we have discussed above.

Selling your product on your own eCommerce store ensures that the complete control lies with you, right from content, product, user experience, and customer details.

On the other hand, you can decide what goes on in the marketplace by controlling the content that you update but how it is displayed or communicated can’t be controlled by you.

Marketplaces choose to go with the format that they think is good for them, not for you. Also, you won’t have access to any data about transactions/marketing activities.

For example, if you implement marketing activities offline or outside of the marketplace, you won’t know how effective it is.

With your own store, you can always get the analytics setup and get access to all the marketing and sales data you need.

Transactions fee

When a sale takes place on your own eCommerce store, you will only have to pay the payment gateway fee. But yes, remember that you are also paying for marketing your online store, website maintenance, etc.

Whereas in the case of marketplaces, you have to make payments such as listing fees, commission, etc, Usually this ranges from 10% to 25% of the product price depending on the product category and the marketplace.

Store Policy

Every marketplace has its own store policy for listing products and they may change them at any time. In the worst case, they may even block your product listing/category.

You will never know what will happen at any time and you’ll always be dependent on them for your sales. This makes the marketplace selling slightly unpredictable.

You will not be having any such issue if you own an eCommerce store, as you decide what you want to sell in your store.

Visibility

If you launch the product on the marketplace, you have an opportunity to showcase your product to the massive existing customer base of the chosen marketplace.

But, visibility for your product depends on a lot of factors such as uniqueness, conversion rate, reviews, content, etc.

There are chances that your product might be lost among so many products listed on the marketplace under the same category as yours.

Marketplaces are best for unique products that get more visibility. It’s advisable to stay away from the marketplace for selling the same kind of products if it is already crowded.

In the case of your own store, you can decide which product needs to be highlighted.

Customer details – Know your customers better

Understanding your customer’s persona is the key to your online business to grow and improve your offerings.

You have ownership of the customer’s details and connect with them through different channels to communicate with your customers when you own the online eCommerce store.

You can use these details to upsell/cross-sell/launch new products.

Most marketplaces do not allow the store owners to contact the customers or in most cases, the customer details are not shared with you. So you won’t be able to communicate with the people who have purchased products on marketplaces and understand their experience.

Credibility, Trust, & Loyalty

As a new online store, gaining people’s trust will be the biggest challenge. You can add more elements to your website that increase credibility such as product stories, press mentions, testimonials, industry-related badges, etc.

You should know that it takes time to build credibility & trust. But it will be rewarding in the long run which will increase the number of loyal customers who love your products.

Marketplaces already have millions of customers those trust their services and products. You can take advantage of this and enjoy sales by just listing the product on marketplaces (Yes! Your product should be great otherwise bad reviews will eventually lead to fewer sales).

Marketing Expenses

Customers won’t just flow in once you have launched the store.

You need to go out (Not really, go out, but you can simply run ads from your desk) and promote/market your eCommerce store to drive traffic to your store.

You need to tell a story about your product to the right audience. This plays a crucial role in your store’s success and it is the key.

The more money you put in marketing, the more traffic you get. Not only money, but you also need marketing expertise or hire experts to drive targeted traffic and convert them into sales.

Having said that, certain marketing activities involve zero investment, but they take a lot of time.

On the other hand, marketplaces are good at driving targeted traffic to their sites.

All you need to do is list the product and optimize the product listing with all the necessary details to help potential customers make the right buying decision.

Some marketplaces provide marketing options inside their platforms. Amazon offers options to market your product through its service called, Amazon Marketing Services.

Infrastructure – Payment Gateway / Logistics Issue

When you sell your product on marketplaces, all the technical things such as online payment collection, security, or logistics will be taken care of by the platform.

They have their own infrastructures for supporting the sellers. Once you signup on their platform, you can access all the services provided by them.

However, you need to pay for these services based on the number of orders that you receive. But in most of the platforms, there won’t be any charges unless you make any sales. It’s a win-win situation as you don’t pay them anything until you make a sale.

But you need to take care of all these things on your own or through help from professionals when you own an eCommerce store.

Though eCommerce platforms like Shopify, make it easy to integrate payment gateway and other services, still you need professional assistance if it involves much more technical things.

Profit Margins

Expenses are involved in both, marketplaces as well as an eCommerce store. You can decide which is the best choice considering the profit margins and efforts involved in both.

Below is the list of expenses involved to give you a fair idea of how this works. It varies from marketplace to marketplace and country to country.

Potential for more sales & Scalability

It should come down to what your business goals are and how you see the future of your store.

Even if you have a best-seller product on the marketplaces when you list the new product you have to begin from the beginning. And your sales growth depends on the category growth in the marketplace. You can’t really decide your sales growth.

If you sell some of your products successfully in your store and build a very good customer base, then you can launch your future products and you can expand your overall category and product offering.

Your sales growth is proportional to the resources that are available to you.

Branding

You might lose your brand when you are selling on marketplaces as people will likely remember the marketplace name and not your brand.

You will be doing marketing for the marketplace indirectly not your own brand and there is a higher chance that your customer might be exposed to your competitor’s products and you losing a sale to them.

You can build your brand and loyal customer base when you are selling in your store, which will help you in the long run.

Why do want to market someone else company when you can do it on your own.

Speed

Listing your products on marketplaces is straightforward and it can be done in a day if you just have all the product details & documents ready.

But launching your own online store involves a lot of activities like choosing a domain for your store, server, website development, payment gateway, logistics, etc.

eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and Bigcommerce make it easier to create eCommerce stores, still, you might need to work on the other aspects of the business process. It usually takes one-three months to launch your own eCommerce store.

Multiple marketplaces

In any country, there will be multiple marketplaces that are popular among the people. Once you choose to sell your product on different marketplaces, then you have to invest time to focus on all the marketplaces.

So, Which is best for your business?

There is no common answer to this question because all businesses are not the same.

To decide which is the best for your business — Marketplace or own eCommerce store, Answer the following questions and think about your business goals:

• Where are your potential customers hanging out?
• How much time do you have?
• How much money do you need?
• What kind of resources do you have?

By answering the above questions, you can choose the best way to sell your products online.

However, as a thumb rule,

If you believe that your product is truly unique and deserves the time and effort to be marketed individually, it’s worth looking into selling via your own online store.

If it is a more generic product, it is probably best to sell on Amazon and eBay.

Even if you are selling through your own online store, you can use marketplaces as one of the sales channels that fuel your sales and supports your store financially.

You can use coupons, product packages, and other marketing activities with the packaging/invoices when you are selling in the marketplaces.

Final Thoughts!

Look at your business goals and products to help you to decide and prepare for the future!

Still, confused?

Do you need help in choosing the right way to sell your products online? Comment below or just shoot me an email to hear back from me with suggestions.

All the best!!!

The post Ecommerce Store or Marketplace? What is the Best Way to Sell Your Product Online and Why! appeared first on Bharathidasan Moorthi.

Launched a new product on Amazon and the sales are not growing as you have projected?

Now is the time to embrace Amazon Marketing Services(AMS).

Amazon has millions of satisfied and loyal customers across the globe. Amazon marketing campaigns help you to reach shoppers on Amazon who might be interested in your products based on the keywords they search and their past shopping behaviors.

In this article, I’m going to cover different PPC marketing campaign types (which means you only pay when shoppers click your ad) available on Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) and how to use them to boost sales.

Different Amazon Ad Campaign Types

Amazon provides 3 different ad campaign formats through the seller central dashboard.

1. Headline Search Ads (HSA)
2. Product Display Ad(PDA)
3. Sponsored Products Ad(SP)

Let us see how & when to use each of the campaigns and get the most out of your ad budget.

1. Headline Search Ads (HSA)

Headline search ad appears on top of the search result page and the ad appears based on the keyword you bid for. If you are familiar with Google Adwords, this campaign is more like the Google Search Network Campaign type.

You can use any page with your products/Custom URL(displaying specific products)/Amazon brand page as a landing page where you can showcase the featured products. This type of ad appears both on the mobile site, mobile app, and desktop version of Amazon.

Here is an example of the Headline search ad by Jabra Brand for the keyword “wireless Bluetooth headphone”.

You can either choose the default Amazon template with a minimum of 3 products & headline text on the ad or you can use your own custom graphic.

Note: The Default Amazon template’s Click Through Rate (CTR) beats custom graphic CTR, because of its native design.

Get the ad running by adding the relevant keywords to show up your ad, budget, and bid. Tools like SEOStack show the most used search terms for any product or category. You can use any one of the following keyword match types for bidding: Exact Match and Phrase Match.

2. Product Display Ad (PDA)

Sponsored display ad appears below the Add to Cart button on the product details page/Amazon home page.

Here is an example of a Product Display Ad (PDA). Check out how Bluestar tries to steal customers from Voltas by showing their Bluestar’s competitive product on the Voltas AC product page.

You can use two types of targeting:

1. Product Targeting

Product targeting helps you to target specific product pages on Amazon and you can narrow down the targeting based on the product type. You need to manually choose on which product page your ad should appear. Ideally, you can target related products/competitor’s products for better conversion.

2. Interest Targeting

You can broaden the audience reach by choosing interest targeting. You can target shoppers who have a particular interest.

Amazon has already grouped the shoppers based on their past shopping behavior on Amazon. If you are promoting fiction book, you can target customer’s those have an interest & bought the fiction books on Amazon already.

You can simply choose the product that you want to promote and put a headline for the ad using the Amazon template/use a custom graphic.

3. Sponsored Products Ad

Sponsored product ads help you promote a particular product listing based on the keyword shoppers searching for. This ad appears as part of the search results above or at the bottom of the search results. Once shoppers click on the ad, they will be directed to the product detail page.

You can choose two types of targeting:

1. Automatic Targeting

This type of targeting is good if you are just starting with AMS ads or launched a new product. But you don’t have control over where the ad appears. 

If you choose this targeting type, Amazon shows the ad for the keywords related to the product and based the product information. The ads also appear under related products in product suggestions.

2. Manual Targeting

Manual targeting helps you choose the keywords for which you have to appear. It works like a Headline search ad but the ad is shown as part of the search results. You can choose a keyword match type and bid for individual keywords. Negative keywords help you to exclude some keywords for which you don’t want the ad to appear. This targeting type delivers the best ROAS.

AMS Campaign Reports

AMS provides detailed reports on the campaign’s performance which helps you to optimize the campaign to deliver the best results. The report includes the following metrics.

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Click-Through Rate(CTR)
• Average CPC (ACPC)
• Estimated Total Sales
• Spend
• Advertising Cost Of Sale (ACoS)
• Units Sold
• Detail Page Views(DPV)
• Add to Cart(ATC)

Promotional Credits

You can avail of free promotional credits from Amazon to start with Amazon marketing activities but they vary across the markets. For India, it’s INR 2,000 and $100 for Amazon US.

Over to You

Now go and set up campaigns with free promotional credits. If you have any questions & difficulties, post them in the comments section below.

The post Amazon Marketing Services: 3 PPC Campaign Types To Sell More appeared first on Bharathidasan Moorthi.